Frank Abagnale: Having Leonardo DiCaprio play me in Catch Me If You Can was flattering

Let Catch Me If You Can subject Frank Abagnale advise you how to avoid being conned (Picture: Getty)

Frank Abagnale, 64, is the con man who inspired Steven Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can and now helps the FBI catch fraudsters, forgers and embezzlers.

What can you do to protect yourself from identity theft?
I use a shredder for bank statements and phone bills. Most people use ribbon shredders that cut things straight: we can put those back together in an hour. Look for a security microcut shredder, which cuts papers into confetti. And I don’t use a debit card. The safest thing is a credit card because you’re using the bank’s money. If someone accesses your information, they are stealing the bank’s money, not yours.

Did you do your con jobs for the thrill or for the money?
I was just a guy who ran away from home at 16 because my parents were getting a divorce and the judge was making me choose which parent to live with. I didn’t want to make that choice. I ended up in New York City. I had no money, I had no job, I looked older than 16 and I thought the only way I’d get a job would be to change my age to 26, so I altered one digit of my date of birth on my driver’s licence. Then I started writing bad cheques and the police started looking for me. I just fell into things. I saw an aircraft crew coming out of a hotel and I thought: ‘Boy, if I could just get one of those uniforms, I could walk into the bank as a pilot and it would be easier to cash a cheque.’ Once I had the uniform I realised I could get on planes for free.

Was it fun?
It had its moments but it was also a very lonely life. Even the girls I dated were much older than me so I could never be very serious about them because I knew I was so much younger than they were. I certainly wouldn’t want to live it over again.

You stole something like $2.5million. What did you spend it on?
About $2million dollars was recovered because, being so young, I had no way of spending what today would be about $20million. I spent about $500,000, which I paid back about 20 years ago, so no one is out of pocket because of the crimes I committed. People would say to me: ‘Why didn’t you invest it in the stock market?’ Well, because I was 16 years old, I didn’t know how to. It’s quite flattering to have Leonardo DiCaprio play you in the movie. He’s a great-looking young man. I have three sons so when I mentioned Leo they weren’t very excited. But when they saw the movie, they all agreed he did an incredible job of portraying me.

Did you get to meet him?
I got to meet all of them. I was very blessed it was Steven Spielberg who made the movie. He was very much into the redemption side of the story. They asked him in an interview why he had owned the rights to this story for 20 years before he made the movie and he said: ‘I wanted to see what the real Frank Abagnale did with his life before I immortalised him on film.’

Which of your crimes do you regret the most?
The only real person I stole money from was a hooker who paid money to sleep with me without realising it. I met her in a Miami hotel. She thought I was a pilot and she asked if I would be interested in her coming back to my room? I was just a kid and said: ‘How much would that cost? How about $1,000?’ And she said that would do it but I told her I had to go down to the front desk to cash a cheque. And she said: ‘Why don’t you just sign the cheque over to me?’ And I said because it’s for $1,400 dollars, so she gave me $400. And we both got screwed.

How did no one know you were 16?
The powerful thing was that uniform. If I had the uniform on, you didn’t doubt for a moment I was a pilot. No one ever blinked an eye if I tried to cash a cheque wearing that uniform.

If I was your wife, I’d think: ‘If he cheats on me, he’s going to get away with it.’
I think my wife understood from the day I met her how important she was to me and how important it was for me becoming a husband and a father. I don’t think she’s ever worried about that.